Maxis' bold changes to the original formula set forth by The Sims aren't all for the better, but they make The Urbz a very distinctive and surprisingly solid game.

Spyro's newly expanded roster doesn't manage to save A Hero's Tail from monotony, and even the title's targeted younger demographic will probably soon tire of the game's reliance on boring collectible gathering.

So while EverQuest II isn't the massive step for the genre that its predecessor was, it can still be a fun and addictive online role-playing experience that has a lot to offer new and experienced players alike.

It's a professionally executed but thoroughly conventional action game that's more tepid than it is thrilling.

Has a lot of personality and some interesting city-building gameplay, but is weighed down by a few problems not found in some of the previous games of this type.

Those who will only settle for the best in terms of flight model fidelity and cutting-edge graphics should let this one fly on by.

This is hands down the single best GameCube tennis offering, and it's also one of the most enjoyable tennis video games around.

It bears repeating that Pacific Assault really does a great job of creating a believable atmosphere, even if the gameplay itself, as well as your allies' inabilities to die or shut up, isn't realistic.

A decent sim that does things mostly right. It provides a solid framework for an online space sim, but it needs additional content to build and sustain its appeal.

Scrapland has just enough going for it to make it enjoyable to play through while you experience the whimsy and inherent goofiness of its quirky and unique world. It's the intangibles that ultimately save Scrapland from the junk heap.

Underneath its flashy exterior, Tron 2.0: Killer App is still a fairly bland shooter whose few memorable moments are overshadowed by unimaginative level design and far too many load screens.

Ultra Bust-A-Move's Xbox Live support is the most significant addition yet, making this budget title appealing despite its otherwise all-too-familiar gameplay.

Silly music and controller headaches aside, Intellivision Lives! does a fine job of compiling a huge number of games into one package and presenting them in an easy-to-pick-up manner.

Fitting a team-based shooter into a platformer might not seem like a great fit at first, but when taken as a total package, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal is a truly great game.

It doesn't reinvent the EyeToy genre, and some of the games lose their appeal quickly or feel a bit too familiar, but the healthy number of minigames included in the package makes it one of best values out there for EyeToy owners.

Smashing Drive for the GBA isn't a great racing game, and it certainly won't eat up weeks of your time, but it is fine for what it is: a simple, graphically impressive racer that can be played in short bursts.

The game is best suited for inexperienced or younger players because it just isn't very challenging.

The Xbox version yields mixed results: It makes numerous improvements but it also takes away some of the freedom offered in the PC version.

There's still some fun to be found here, but ultimately Killzone is a barely adequate game that probably won't hold your attention for very long.

Has some short-term appeal, but over time it makes you feel like a glorified exterminator, tediously eliminating an endless stream of generic monsters for no real reason.

Hardcore Godzilla fans will appreciate seeing the decent renderings of some of their favorite monsters here, but they're unlikely to be terribly impressed by the action itself.

The Third Age molds Middle-earth into a traditional turn-based frame, and while the results aren't all that great, the game carries some pretty good features and should appeal to fans of the source material.

Aside from a few overly convoluted puzzles and some other flaws common to traditional adventure games, puzzle-solving doesn't get much more captivating than this.

A more well-rounded game than either of its predecessors, and though it's unlikely to convert those who weren't impressed with past installments, fans of the first two games should find plenty to like here.

The single-player portions of the game are ridiculously easy, even on the hard settings. Only a few campaign missions are remotely challenging, and even these cases are due to poor AI with Allied forces.

While many fighting games this year have gone online, Guilty Gear Isuka takes a step back and to the side with its awkward multicharacter fighting system.

An ugly collection of poorly conceived minigames, The Polar Express is a failure by the standards of any medium.

Despite being the first WWE game ever to offer a full roster of WWE voice talent and the first North American-released wrestling game to feature online play, neither of these features live up to their potential, and the other random gameplay upgrades just don't feel like a significant enough progression for the series.

If Duel Masters already has its hooks in you, then the game will be inherently appealing because it executes most of the basics with just enough competence. However, it's otherwise fairly unimpressive and probably won't do much for the uninitiated.

The game itself employs a number of horrible, tired RPG conventions and a budget presentation, making it difficult to recommend to even the most fervent of fans.

While there are some rough edges, the result is mostly a nice little role-playing jaunt into the world of Tolkien.

While Sonic aficionados will be disappointed by the omission of a few notable titles, such as the superlative "Sonic CD," there's a ton of solid Robotnik-thwarting to be had with the Mega Collection Plus.

It feels dated, yes, but a lot of the quality still stands up, and with strategy being a scarce commodity on the GameCube, it's hard to argue with the game's bargain-basement price tag.

An ugly collection of poorly conceived minigames, The Polar Express is a failure by the standards of any medium.

Molds Middle-earth into a traditional turn-based frame, and while the results aren't all that great, the game carries some pretty good features and should appeal to fans of the source material.

An absolutely great update to what was already a wonderfully spooky game.

The game doesn't buck the trend of mediocrity, offering a fairly unremarkable experience that puts you through the motions of the film's plot without capturing any of its essence.

A simplistic but pleasant beat-'em-up. The combat isn't complicated, and there isn't much payoff for beating the whole thing, but the ride does have its moments.

The game doesn't buck the trend of mediocrity, offering a fairly unremarkable experience that puts you through the motions of the film's plot without capturing any of its essence.

The game doesn't buck the trend of mediocrity, offering a fairly unremarkable experience that puts you through the motions of the film's plot without capturing any of its essence.

Luckily, the shooting wins out over the moralizing and helps make Men of Valor one of the few games to successfully tackle the Vietnam War.

Plays just as well as its console cousin, with the additional advantage of some gorgeous graphics.

Difficult to recommend even to fans of the team, because, unlike Alex Ferguson's world-class squad, the game doesn't play an attractive, realistic, or even challenging game of soccer.

A decent dungeon crawler that invests some energy into lampooning RPGs and high fantasy in general, but like a stand-up act about airline food or the line at the post office, its perspective isn't very interesting, and it lacks any real follow-through.

With its strong story, well-written dialogue, terrific voice cast, impressive graphics, great in-game sound, and extremely entertaining and varied gameplay, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a stupendous thrill ride that shouldn't be missed.

If not for some of the glaring bugs, Frontier would have delivered a truly excellent sequel to a beloved franchise.

Pacific Fighters uses the acclaimed IL-2 Sturmovik engine to simulate this epic conflict, but unfortunately it turns out to be the biggest letdown of the series.

Although it offers newcomers two brand-new species to play as, Jump to Lightspeed (like so much of the content added to the game in recent updates) has been designed to reward dedicated, hardcore players rather than appeal to new ones, and that's exactly what it does.

A game that you can't help but have fun with, but which might be best rented for parties and suchlike given its bundled-with-a-peripheral price tag and somewhat limited single-player appeal.

Plays a solid game of basketball, but even the flashy new features can't hide the fact that it isn't a huge step up from last year's edition.

A dungeon hack of the most boring kind. You'll have the most fun farming for items, but that is predicated on an enjoyment of the simplistic, dull combat, the constant repetition of dungeons, and overall tedium.

There's some nostalgic gameplay here, but by and large GTA Advance just isn't much fun.

Between getting the fundamentals right and offering up a boatload of extra features, this literally is the only chess video game you'll ever need to buy for the forseeable future.

It sports the most fully featured online multiplayer mode of any fighting game yet, which is a huge accomplishment.

A decent dungeon crawler that invests some energy into lampooning RPGs and high fantasy in general, but like a stand-up act about airline food or the line at the post office, its perspective isn't very interesting, and it lacks any real follow-through.

Ace Combat 5 isn't the huge step for the series that "Ace Combat 04" was, but it's still a great flight combat game, featuring grueling arcade-style action and plenty of surprises both in its mission design and its story.

And like any good puzzle game, Dr. Mario's addictive style of gameplay has stood the test of time; the inclusion of wireless networking capability adds even more value.

This is a well-produced port of an excellent game, and even though it probably would have been better served as part of a collection than as a stand-alone product, you could certainly find a number of worse ways to spend $20 for your GBA.

It's easy to see how certain aspects of Metroid's design made it a classic, but 18 years later, the overall package just doesn't measure up to today's action adventure standards.

While it may not offer the sophistication of other racing games on the market, OutRun2 has an old-school sensibility that makes it both appealing and addictive. A wealth of content and an online mode add to the game's great value as well.

A good expansion to the original game. It's true that the new missions feel like ones you've already played before, and it's also true that major micromanagement and AI problems--again--rear their ugly heads.

This just isn't an especially engaging game, so it's unlikely that anyone past the youngest of audiences will get too much fun from it.

So even if bawdy caricatures of rednecks and dominatrices don't sound immediately appealing to you, Outlaw Golf 2 offers a tight, challenging game of golf with some unique gameplay ideas, and it comes at a price that makes it a terrific value.

Retains much of its predecessor's unique and awe-inspiring style, thanks to a great new cast of characters, some completely new types of challenges, and a presentation that's second to none.

Pumped & Primed's minigames are all quite simplistic, and the single-player portion of the game can be completed in five or six hours. However, with a multitap and the right group of friends, there's no reason you shouldn't have some fun with it.

It's rare that a game's bonus features are more compelling than its main play mode, but that's definitely the case with the GBA version of Tron 2.0: Killer App.

This just isn't an especially engaging game, so it's unlikely that anyone past the youngest of audiences will get too much fun from it.

The stages themselves are filled with over-the-top shooting action and twitch gameplay, so they're good for some kicks, even if Neo Contra ultimately doesn't provide much depth or challenge.

The pacing is faster, and it's pretty satisfying viscerally. It's a decent buzz, but with a limited number of levels and a decided lack of depth, it wears off pretty quickly.

Battle Nexus is more than just a step backward for this series--it's a step backward into a large chasm.

This is easily one of the best sports management games on the market, and it's second star only to Sports Interactive classics like "Championship Manager."

Boktai 2's steeper difficulty level and direct tie-in to the original game's storyline means it will be probably be most enjoyed by fans of the original who are eager for a greater challenge.

Some of you may be in for a shock when you dive into TMNT2: Battle Nexus and discover that it's just as much a puzzle game as it is a Turtles-inspired beat-'em-up.

Solidly good without quite crossing over into great. It's an odd combination of high polish and rough edges.

Battle Nexus is more than just a step backward for this series--it's a step backward into a large chasm.

If you're looking for pure platforming action with plenty of variety, Kirby's latest adventure most certainly fits the bill.

The gameplay will have you shaking your head in disbelief and disgust as you encounter one badly designed puzzle, maze, or action sequence after another.

Though it features a few more annoying control restrictions than its console counterparts, it's still a solid platformer.

The spirit of the franchise remains intact in Tribes: Vengeance, from the thrilling speed of jetpacking and skiing to the depth of the team-based action in multiplayer. The game's excellent presentation is merely the icing on the cake for a game that excels in just about every aspect.

Provides a viscerally enjoyable experience pretty much from beginning to end. The game certainly has its blemishes, and it's definitely not the deepest or headiest action title you'll ever experience, but underneath those problems is a stylish and gory action game with enough kills and thrills to keep you entertained.

It's unlikely that anyone other than King of Fighters fans will find much interest in Maximum Impact, but even they will be disappointed by certain key aspects of the game.

A refreshing, challenging change of pace in a genre that all too often treads the same well-worn, well-loved territory.

Older audiences probably won't be engaged by it, but Ty 2 should be easily appreciated by juvenile platformer fans.

It's an interesting idea to play the part of the invading alien, and there's a very colorful, bizarre visual style at work here, but the single-player game is short, the gameplay is simple, and the game just doesn't seem to go anywhere.

There's no doubt that this is EA Sports' best soccer game to date on the pitch, but it's really unfortunate that the career mode isn't more user-friendly.

There's no doubt that this is EA Sports' best soccer game, to date, on the pitch. However, it's really unfortunate that the career mode isn't more user-friendly.

Will hold the interest of a devoted WWE fan for a few days, but it doesn't have a wide enough assortment of wrestlers or moves to keep the attention of anyone else for very long. The absence of a create-a-wrestler option is also tragic.

There's so much packed into this game that it's almost too complicated for its own good--almost. But once you climb The Crusaders' steep learning curve and experience the wild frenzy of its massive battles, you'll find all that complexity pays off in spades.

Provides a viscerally enjoyable experience pretty much from beginning to end. The game certainly has its blemishes, and it's definitely not the deepest or headiest action title you'll ever experience, but underneath those problems is a stylish and gory action game with enough kills and thrills to keep you entertained.

Older audiences probably won't be engaged by it, but Ty 2 should be easily appreciated by juvenile platformer fans.

There's no doubt that this is EA Sports' best soccer game to date on the pitch, but it's really unfortunate that the career mode isn't more user-friendly.

Older audiences probably won't be engaged by it, but Ty 2 should be easily appreciated by juvenile platformer fans.

There's no doubt that this is EA Sports' best soccer game to date on the pitch, but it's really unfortunate that the career mode isn't more user-friendly.

Definitely a more well-conceived game than The Power of Juju, and there are some genuinely fresh, inventive ideas at work here. The problem is, the whole experience is muddled by an inconsistent difficulty and slapdash level designs, and these good ideas don't quite coalesce into a good game.

It has its little glitches and problems here and there, but the bonus material is nice and most of the games are nearly identical to the arcade originals that they're trying to duplicate.

Even while you know that the game isn't the least bit realistic, you keep playing just to see what sort of craziness will happen next. But the novelty of curiosities like Fiji spying on Denmark fades in just a few hours, and when it does, you'll reach for the uninstall icon.

Definitely a more well-conceived game than The Power of Juju, and there are some genuinely fresh, inventive ideas at work here. The problem is, the whole experience is muddled by an inconsistent difficulty and slapdash level designs, and these good ideas don't quite coalesce into a good game.

As with most classic arcade compilations, the games here tend to hold up pretty well, and for the most part, they're very close to the arcade originals.